Shinigami At Hogwarts
by CaiDa2931
Summary: The bleach characters have turned up in Hogwarts! They must be up to something devious! Ron is jealous of Byakuya and is scared of Hitsugaya! What does Harry make of all this? They're all having lessons together, another crazy year at Hogwarts!
1. On the Hogwarts Express

Hope you all enjoy the first chapter.

Please review.

Chapter 1

"Hey, Harry?"

Hmm?" Harry mumbled.

"What'd you reckon the letter we got off the school meant by 'this year will offer a new and interesting experience for students'?" asked Ron, from across Harry.

Ron was both excited and nervous at this piece of news as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry tended to exhibit some strange surprises. Harry was getting more and more impatient with Ron, especially since this was about the fiftieth time Ron had enquired this. Harry himself was rather curious but had decided not to press the matter since it couldn't be any dark or dangerous. Just a few months ago Harry had defeated Lord Voldemort, and suppressed all the dark forces involved. He was pretty sure that there was nothing in the world that could catch him off guard anymore; perhaps the school was finally going to offer some kind of genuine activity of magical importance. Hopefully the mere fact that he was Harry Potter wouldn't affect the course of the year. Therefore Harry simply shrugged at Ron's query.

Another voice now spoke up from the window seat beside Ron on the Hogwarts express.

"Ronald, obviously if Harry knew something he would tell us. According to that letter from Hagrid there's to be a new style in teaching. He wrote that he couldn't say much more in a letter, so we're just going wait, aren't we?"

Hermione was reading "Hogwarts A History" yet again. The train had only just pulled out of platform nine and three quarters about five minutes ago. They were speeding up as the train passed London; there were still a few students about hunting for spare compartments. Their own compartment door slid open slightly and two cold blue eyes peered through, then the person hurriedly closed it and paced away quickly.

Draco Malfoy had become a bit of a loner since the summer when most of his friends either had been killed or sentenced to Azkaban for life. The Malfoys themselves had been spared on the grounds of "being controlled by the Dark Lord and therefore are spared of all accusable crimes".

"Still a bit of a prat, ain't he?" Ron spat as Malfoy left. Ron maintained a bitter hatred of Malfoy and took every chance he got to throw insults, or trip him up, as he had done when they met him on a summer day trip to Diagon Alley. Harry couldn't exactly say he liked Malfoy now, but what had happened was in the past, and Harry had made a decision to forget everything. But of course the rivalry between them lingered on.

Hermione commented instead, as she was a bigger chatterbox. Harry had become rather quiet after all the events of last year. Ron and Hermione suspected it was simply due to pure relief of massive pressure, and didn't bother trying to talk him out of it. Ron tried to cheer him up on the sly, however nothing proved effective, and he soon left the matter.

"Come one, Ron! Give him some credit, he hardly has friends, half of Slytherin got wiped out or were removed from school, their parents were so ashamed. Gosh, Ronald, don't you read the Daily Prophet." Ron didn't, no, but now turned back to Harry.

"We still hate him, right Harry?.... Oi Harry!"

"What?"

Harry wasn't really listening to all the chatter, he was actually thinking of Ginny. She had caught a violent flu bug over the summer and wasn't coming back to school straight away. He was worried about her, it felt terrible to be separated when they finally had the freedom to be together. Harry was now wondering why he was even coming back to school. There was really no point, any Auror firm in the wizarding world would sign up the famous Harry Potter for life and pay him how many ever galleons he desired, finishing school wouldn't make the slightest difference. But Ron's parents and Hermione had insisted so here he was.

Before Ron could explain to Harry what the current conversation was, they heard some very loud voices coming from up the corridor. The owners seemed to be getting closer as the noise was increasing. They could now catch parts of the conversation between these people.

"If we weren't so late…"

"Ikkaku, how can you possibly do your hair, when you have none?"

"SHUT UP!!!"

"At least we caught up, now be quite, you're annoying the Captain."

Ron was not pleased to be interrupted like this and stomped outside to investigate.

"Who the hell is making all then noi-"

Ron found himself almost nose to nose with a large bald man, scowling.

"What? Got a problem red head?"

"N-no s-sir" Ron managed.

"I'm killing you for that comment Ikkaku. Prepare to face the rage of Renji and Zabimaru!" Ron now spotted an even larger man behind the first. He was incredibly muscular and heavily tattooed, with startling blood red hair all tied into a long pony tail that stuck up on end. His eyebrows were shaped like lightening, there was a bandana tied around his forehead and he was glaring back at the bald man with dangerous eyes. Very intimidating indeed. Both men were clothed in black robes, different from the Hogwarts school uniform.

The big red headed one moved in to punch the bald man, but was stopped instantly by someone else behind him, grabbing his arm.

"Matsumoto, what are you –"

"Stop it Renji, you're upsetting the captain, again. God! Yumichika, do something!"

Ron now became aware of three others behind the first two. A strawberry blonde woman with ridiculously large breasts, a small child with silver/ white hair and another man, perhaps, Ron wasn't quite sure. This was because of the bob haircut, feathery eye lashes and neat robes. The child had its eyes lowered and was frowning. They were all clad in black robes as well; however in addition to this the small child was also wearing a white sleeveless robe over his black garments.

"Sorry, Matsumoto-san, they're just really high spirited you know. Please forgive them Captain, they're just very enthusiastic about this little trip." The man (perhaps) answered.

"Move kid!" the attention of the bald man had now turned back to Ron.

"Umm, yeah sure." Ron backed up into his compartment and flumped into his seat. The noisy people sauntered off down the corridor mumbling something about sitting on the roof.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron said to himself.

"Looks like you just upset some new students, Ron. Maybe that's the new surprise, a school transfer?"

Hermione was half right. The rest of the journey went smoothly and there were no other disturbances apart from the odd bang from the roof and the same familiar voices from before.


	2. Journey to the Castle

Here's chapter 2 of Shinigami At Hogwarts!  
Hope you enjoyed the first part!

(I'm assuming the character of Severus Snape is somehow alive after Voldemort's defeat).

--------------------------------------------

Chapter 2

A few hours later the Hogwarts Express finally came to a halt at Hogsmeade train station. The students slowly got up, stretched and made their way out of train chatting. Hagrid, the gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher, could be heard (and seen) calling for the first years to board the tiny little boats that were docked on the edge of the great lake, that was next to the castle in a valley. The first years were all pretty frightened as a rumour had gone round as usual that the lake was inhabited by a giant squid.

Harry saw a little congregation of first years near Hagrid waiting to board the boats. There one at the centre addressing the others.

"The squid's tentacles pop out of the water and drag you in!" the first year told a group of his classmates that circled him. One of the little girls squealed and a boy with a chubby round face gasped, he looked near tears. This boy reminded Harry strongly of Neville Longbottom. Neville used to be the sort who couldn't stand up for himself and always got bullied by bigger people, like Malfoy and his underlings, Crabbe and Goyle. Of course all that had changed now.

"Yeah, my cousin told me all about it. Said he saw them with his own peepers and everything. You'll be the first one Wally, since you're so fat!" The crowd burst out into laughter, while the little chubby boy burst out into sobs.

Harry was getting angry by now and strode over to defend the boy.

"You lot leave him alone! There's no such thing as an evil giant squid and it will not pull you into the lake! And you," Said Harry, turning to the sniggering boy who'd been arousing the laughter, "Stop bullying people cos you reckon you're all it! You shouldn't make fun of people because they're fat. I mean… never do it again!" Harry stared around at the crowd, they were all speechless. Ron came over for support.

"Right, all of you sod off! Get into the boats, and make sure no Grindylows get you! Mind you, they definitely exist!" Ron's bellow caused all the first years to stumble back and they hurried past Harry to the dock. Hagrid smiled at them, gave them a kind of 'I'll take it from here' look and strode away.

Harry looked down at the boy called Wally still weeping next to him.

"Don't worry about people like that kid. Now run along before you get stuck out here alone." He said.

The boy nodded and quickly ran off, stumbling once on the way. Harry made a mental note to look out for that kid if he could.

"Harry, Ron quick!" Hermione called from across the platform, "the last carriages are going to leave soon!" They went off to the **Thestral drawn** carriages and sat themselves down in one next to Luna Lovegood, their friend from Ravenclaw house, now in her sixth year. "Hello," she said, "enjoy your summer, Harry?" "Err, yeah. It was good, thanks." "Mine was good too. Especially since the Twindlebees are now in great abundance." "Yeah, of course, Twiddle Dees, yes." "No, Twindlebees. Twiddle Dees are only there in the winter." They had never really got used to having a conversation with Luna. They now sat there wondering what on earth Twindlebees or Twiddle Dees could be. Harry turned his attention to the **Thestral pulling the carriage. All of them could see it now that they had all seen death. Its huge, white eyes shone in the twilight as it ambled on towards the castle. The peace was soon disturbed by the same loud voices as before, from the train. The owners were yet again in full-blast conversation, this time arguing about something else.**

"Seriously, Renji! This thing's just as weird as a hollow!"

"Pur-lease, what kind of wimpy hollows do they send you to fight, Ikkaku." Said the red haired man.

"Oh well SO-RRY, mister Vice-captain of the bloody 6th division. And anyway, look at its freakish wings and skinny body."

"I resent that remark about the 6th division. We are awesome!" answered the Vice-captain.

"Oh yeah, I'm the 6th division's captain, I'm actually a man but, I've got pretty hair and a Zanpaktou that is pink flower petals." The bald man did an imitation of a girl in ballet shoes twirling.

"At least my Captain knows his Zanpaktou's name and has achieved bankai! Yours has you and Yumichika as minions and a little hyper infant as the Vice-captain!"

They continued to argue like this for quite a long while, and Harry and his friends were forced to listen to the row.

Meanwhile, Ron could take it no longer,

"Blimey! Listen to that, they can see the Thestrals! Those guys are hardcore!"

Harry was really impressed too. It was quite shocking for these young people to have seen death, they weren't familiar students. He wondered where they had witnessed death. Maybe a death in the family, or an accident in public? Nevertheless he continued listening in with the others, except Hermione, who was reading "Standard Book of Spells Grade 8" under lumos light.

"SHUT UP!!! You guys have talked, argued and have bin loud the whole damn way! I've got a freaking headache! Now I order you to sit in silence the rest of the way, or I swear to God that I will kick your asses!"

"Yes sir!" said the red-head and the bald man. They took their seats in the carriage once more.

Ron was astounded.

"No way! That little kid's got total power over that rough lot. Oh my god, now that big boobed woman's massaging his shoulders! What the hell is that?!?"

"You know, guys, it's quite rude to sit here and talk about other people behind their backs."

Luna hadn't spoken.

Hermione hadn't spoken.

Harry hadn't spoken.

They whirled around

"Argh!" Ron screamed. Hermione let out a gasp and Harry and Luna jumped.

The bob-haired man (maybe) was sitting in their carriage next to Harry. They looked to the other carriage and found three pairs of eyes staring back at them, the small child had his eyes lowered and was frowning again. They turned back to the man (maybe), who was still there.

"We're sharing the school this year, so let's all get along. My friends there are all really noisy I know, but they're all nice really. See you later." With that he disappeared.

They all stared wide-eyed at the now empty seat for a second and then as if they were all of the same mind, turned to look at the other carriage again. It was still following them and four pairs of eyes now stared back. The bob-haircut man was back over there, the others were smiling slyly. The white haired child was still frowning, his eyes lowered.

"He couldn't have apparated, he just couldn't have! In Hogwarts you –"

"Yes, we know Hermione!" they bellowed back! Hermione looked slightly disheartened.

There came a low chuckle from the carriage following them.

By this time they had arrived at the castle gates, they dismounted and began the long walk to entrance hall.

'We're sharing the school this year' the words of the bob-haircut man replayed in Harry's head again and again. So they must exchange students of some sort he thought. The mysterious group was still behind them, following at a safe distance so their whispers could not be heard by Harry or the others. The reached the main entrance to the castle to find Professor Snape blocking the way.

"Ah, late-comers it seems" he said spitefully, although somewhat in delight.

"But, there are more people behind us!" Harry protested.

Harry's everlasting hatred for Snape had never completed evaporated, even after witnessing Snape's memories just before Voldemort's defeat last summer. It was true that Harry felt sorry for him for a while after he'd seen all of what Snape had done for his mother and for his protection. But all these emotions vanished when Snape paid a special visit to the Weasly's house, the Burrow, during the summer. He had slammed Harry against a wall in the living room, put his wand to his forehead and made him swear had he would never to reveal the events he had seen in the memories to anyone. Harry had decided not to mention that he had already told Ron, Hermione and Ginny. The relationship was now mutual since Harry had decided that no matter what, Snape was going to remain nasty anyway, and they were back to the way things were before.

"I did not say 'last-comers' Potter." he spat, "Now get inside before I give you detention for a month." Then he swept past them to address the strange visitors, who seemed amused at this little encounter between student and teacher.


	3. The Intro of Kenpachi

Chapter 3

Harry and his friends reached the entrance hall and headed for the large doors on the right that led to the great hall. Most of the students were already seated, waiting for the arrival of the first years and the traditional sorting ceremony. The great hall was up to its usual standard. It was lit up by thousands of bright, levitating candles, and the ceiling mirrored the night sky; there were enchanted silver stars and yellow three quarter moon. The room was full of loud chatter and excitement, everyone was no doubt happy to be back in Hogwarts, and certain they could be safe, finally.

Harry, Ron and Hermione said goodbye to Luna as they reached the Ravenclaw table and went to sit next to their fellow classmates on the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, Harry!" called Seamus Finnigan.

"Hi, Seamus. Have a good summer off?"

"Hell yeah! None of those rumours and rubbish in the Daily Prophet or magical shields, all back to normal, eh?"

"You can say that again." said Ron, "Get up to anything good?"

"Yeah, we went on holiday to the US. It was a blast! We went to this awesome water park in California. I charmed the water on one of the slides to throw some smart ass, who cheeked me in the queue, out of the slide and into midair!"

They all burst out laughing!

"Seamus, that was wrong of you! Magic is not supposed to be used for such purposes!" complained Hermione.

"Aww, cool it Hermione." Seamus answered.

They went on talking like this for another ten minutes or so before the great hall doors opened and Professor McGonagall strode in with a line of first years behind her. They all looked in awe up at the heavens in the ceiling and the spectacular magical atmosphere. They had forgotten for the time being that they had yet to be sorted into their houses. Harry reminisced how he had been sorted into Gryffindor seven years ago, for about the tenth time. He saw the little, chubby boy called Wally stumbling again as he went past the Hufflepuff table. Harry also spotted the mean boy who had been teasing Wally. Harry was pretty sure that this boy would end up in Slytherin.

"Okay first years when I call your name come and sit on this stool, I will place the sorting hat onto your head, and you shall be sorted into your houses."

Professor McGonagall took out a long roll of parchment, unravelled it and chanted out the first name. Harry had thought that someone else would take up the duties of bringing in the first years, since Professor McGonagall was the new headmistress. Snape had of course resigned, if he hadn't there would probably have been a massive postage block because of parents complaining.

The sorting took about half an hour. One child had sat on the stool for at least five minutes before the hat had finally made its choice, which was Ravenclaw. Harry wondered why the Hat had not sung its special song, which it spent each school year composing, maybe it hadn't had any inspiration. He was also wondering where on earth the new students that they had seen were. They had not turned around after passing Snape at the front door, where were they?

The sorting ended. There were eight new Gryffindors, six new Hufflepuffs, eleven Ravenclaws and only three Slytherins. Harry's intuition had been correct; the bully had been sorted into Slytherin. Wally was now a Hufflepuff.

"Attention, students!" said Professor McGonagall. "I have some announcements and introductions to make before we begin the feast."

Ah, finally! Thought Harry, an explanation!

"As you all have been made aware via letters, there will be a new style of teaching this year at Hogwarts. There has been a failure in assigning a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, so we have requested some rather unique people to help fill in the gap."

Everybody looked confused and chatter began. Harry and his friends knew of course what was going on, but wanted further explanation. They were annoyed at the clamour that had caused Professor McGonagall to stop speaking. One thing was still stuck in Harry's mind: why were the people they had seen so young, and why were they addressing each other by ranks, like captain?

The teachers called for silence soon and the talking died down. Professor McGonagall continued.

"The people that are joining us are educated in very different ways to us, however they still use a form of magic that we can relate to. They are from a secret location, just like Hogwarts, called the Soul Society. You will learn beside youngsters from the Soul Society and will taught by some of the more experienced members."

The general clamour began again. Hermione who seemed to be absolutely bursting to speak now rained her knowledge on them.

"I've read about the Soul Society, from a book in the library. They're an elite set of wizards that call themselves Shinigami or Gods of Death."

"Gods of Death??" burst out Ron and Harry together.

"Well, they aren't really Gods of Death, they're famous for their special skills in traditional fighting. They use actual weapons instead of wands, like swords." said Hermione.

"Hang on," said Ron, "they're famous? I've never heard of them."

"Yeah, me neither." Said Harry

"Well, I just mean they're really unique. I haven't got much information on them though, apart from one book called "Magic from the Past" I have seen any mention of them at all."

"I'll bet you Dumbledore had some kind of connection with them or something, and that's how the school knows about them." said Harry.

They were called to silence once more.

"We will now be joined by a few of our guests. Allow me to make some introductions."

Harry noticed that the staff table had been extended by magic to make place for thirteen extra people. How many people from the soul society would be arriving?

Professor McGonagall pointed her wand to a door handle at the back of the room, bright red sparks shot out from the end and the door sprung open to revel the largest man Harry had every seen in his entire life. Not as wide as Dudley, but twice as tall and very muscular. His hairstyle consisted of black, foot long spikes arranged into eleven columns. Each spike had a small bell on the end of them that jingled as he walked. He had an eye patch fastened over his right eye and scar down his left. He was wearing black robes and a white robe over the black ones, just like the child with white hair. The man stepped onto the platform, grinning broadly down to the crowd.

The man had a frightening atmosphere around him, Harry could see a great blood lust in his eyes, the kind of wild eyes that Bellatrix Lestrange had. He was also reminded of Mad Eye Moody. They both shared the same weather beaten face and intimidating presence.

Harry turned to Ron to whisper is opinion of the man, but found that Ron was flat against the dining table, right into his plate.

"Ron, what are you –?" But before Harry completed his sentence he saw that it was not just Ron but everyone in the entire hall, including the teachers, but not Hagrid, who was just as surprised as Harry.

"Sorry, guys." bellowed the huge man. His voice was commanding, deep and utterly terrifying. "Apparently my presence has that effect." He let out an ear shattering laugh that shook the hall. He then saw that Harry hadn't been affected, and grinned even wider.

"Please, stop." managed Professor McGonagall, who was kneeling on the floor, quivering, desperately trying to get up.

A second later the entire hall let out a gasp and everyone lifted themselves from the tables, breathing heavily.

"Didn't you feel it?" asked Ron, now shaking.

"Feel what?" said Harry.

"That guy! As soon as he walked in, I felt I was being crushed or something."

"H-he was feeding out some k-kind of immense magical p-power." Hermione stammered.

Why hadn't Harry felt a thing?

Now back to normal, more or less, Professor McGonagall spoke,

"This is Zaraki Kenpachi and Kusajishi Yachiru."

There was no second person. A few mumbles of 'where' and 'there's only one' broke out.

The large man called Kenpachi reached behind him and pulled out a something, which turned out to be a small child with bubblegum pink hair.

"Hello!" she shouted in a squeaky voice, and went to sit on the large man's shoulder. She seemed totally immune to the Kenpachi's power. She was dressed simple bleack robes.

Now a few more guests had arrived at the back of the hall. Five of them were the youngsters Harry and his friends had met, and also two others.

"These are Abarai Renji, Madarame Ikkaku, Ayasegawa Yumichika, Matsumoto Rangiku, Toshiro Hitsugaya, Unohana Retsu and Isane Kotetsu" said McGonagall pointing out each of them in turn.

The woman called Unohana Retsu was wearing the same uniform as the child and Kenpachi. What was the meaning of the white robes? Both of them stared at Harry for second and looked away.

Harry met the eyes of the child called Hitsugaya. The boy was still frowning and had bright green eyes, just like Harry.


	4. Breakfast

I know it took ages, and I'm really sorry!! (And not the best chapter title either...)

But here's the next chapter!

My favourite character makes his entrance!

Chapter 4

Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way to the Gryffindor common room; they had left as soon as dismissed. For one thing Hermione had wanted to leave in a hurry, she was utterly out breath from the effect of Captain Kenpachi. Ron didn't blame her and followed suit, while Harry, who was simply confused and wanted answers, went with them. They were on the second floor, with a few sixth and seventh years behind them when they stopped to chat. After Captain Hitsugaya had been introduced, his underlings that they had come across were named as vice-captain of the sixth division, Abarai Renji (the scarlet haired man), vice-captain of the tenth division, Matsumoto Rangiku (the large breasted woman), third seat of the eleventh division, Madarame Ikkaku (the bald man) and fifth seat of the eleventh division, Ayasegawa Yumichika, the womanly man, who they now knew was definitely male since Professor McGonagall had referred to the men as "these gentlemen".

"Can you believe that snowy-haired kid is gonna teach us!?!" belted out Ron, "How embarrassing is that!" Harry could see that Ron was quite furious. Being the youngest son of the Weasley family had meant Ron was often pushed around by his older siblings, especially Fred and George. This wasn't going to be easy for him, since now he was going to be pushed around by someone much younger.

"Maybe he's a child genius, Ron. He's probably clever or something and got promoted real quickly." said Harry.

"Actually, mate I don't reckon they get much smarter than Hermione." he answered.

Hermione turned her head away, but Harry could see red smudges imprinted in her cheeks.

"Umm, let's hurry! I can hear the prefects coming up with the new first years." she said as a clatter and chatter came from down the staircase.

They arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor and uttered the new password, "strawberry head" and clambered through the hole in the wall.

"Straight to bed I think" said Hermione, and she rushed off towards the girls dormitories.

Ron looked a little disappointed at the lack of a goodnight kiss or even a hug and stalked off before Harry could say anything. Harry collapsed into an armchair for a second. He thought about all the curious things that had happened. Questions raced through his mind, but none of them seemed to have any plausible response.

Why were these strangers here all of a sudden?

Why were they referred to as captain and vice-captain?

Why hadn't he been affected by the powerful magic of the giant Captain with the pink haired lieutenant?

He was worn out and could have slept till morning without a care. He was just dosing off as a cushion hit him dead in the face.

"Wha-?" he gasped.

"Harry get up, mate. You don't want to be here when the first years turn up. They'll probably nick your hair or your clothes. C'mon!"

"Thanks for the cushion, Seamus. I'm dead tired."

The three arrived at breakfast the next morning to find more new faces and a comforting, old one. Ginny was there. She ran to meet Harry at the foot of the marble staircase, hugging him as they collided.

"Instant recovery over night!" she said, "I just arrived, actually. I got the knight bus this morning."

"On your own? That's not wise." said a concerned Harry.

"Shush! Aren't you happy to see me?"

Harry frowned, that wasn't a fair accusation, he thought. They entered the Great Hall to find almost every single person of the female gender with her head turned up to the teachers' table. They looked, and saw.

"Oh my gosh." said Hermione softly.

Up on the staff table sat the most beautiful man Harry had ever seen in his entire life. His ebony hair, long and straight, was hanging around his shoulders secured with a traditional Japanese kenseikan. A few locks fell over his perfectly chiselled face. His slate coloured eyes were fixed firmly forward and his disciplined stature, flawless. His attire was of a captain's, white and black robes, as well as a scarf of white silk. Despite his hard look and grim gaze, the man was truly gorgeous. Ron eventually thrust Hermione away towards their house table, giving all the other girls dirty looks along the way. Harry saw Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil gossiping rapidly into each others ears while staring up at the handsome captain. Some things just don't change he sighed.

They sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table and piled their plates. Hagrid was waving cheerily from the staff table at them; they returned it heartily and began discussing the lessons that they may be having that day.

"Not potions first I hope," droned Ron, "I really can't be bothered for Snape first thing!"

"I wonder how many 'different' lessons there'll be on our schedules. I'm actually quite looking forward to it now." said Hermione.

"Well yeah, with pretty boy up there, what girl wouldn't" Harry laughed, Ron didn't.

"No! I mean to find out about the different kinds of magic from this Soul Society place!" Hermione protested.

"Hang on. What?" Ginny cut in.

"Oh yeah, you weren't here."

They filled Ginny in about the 'new style of teaching', but all she could say was "huh?"

"It's true, I mean look. There's two sitting on the Ravenclaw table." Harry pointed out.

Sure enough two tables away, sitting a few seats away from Luna, sat vice-captain Matsumoto and Abarai. They seemed to be arguing about something, again. Harry noted that no one was sitting in a three seat radius of them. He also now saw that there was another captain seated at the staff table, another man. He had silver hair and a foxy grin permanently embedded into his thin face. He was staring over at vice-captain Matsumoto with red slit-like eyes. Harry shuddered as he saw them, thinking of the cold snake eyes of Voldemort. No way! It's not him, he assured himself. Matsumoto found his gaze and looked back for a second and the captain winked at her. Yeah, that'll happen, mate Harry thought sarcastically but to his astonishment the woman returned his gesture with a gentle smile. Freaky!

"Gryffindor seventh year time tables" called Professor McGonagall.

Ron got up, stuffing a whole piece of toast into his mouth and collected a piece of parchment from his head of house.

"Damn!" he groaned. "We've got potions first.

Harry kept reading his own timetable, free second lesson, then… Zanpakutō with Hitsugaya and Matsumoto. Zanpakutō? What on earth was that?

---------------

Hope you liked it! Please review!

New chapters coming soon! But, I really need to re-watch a few bleach episodes first to check if I've got all the technical stuff right :P Please bear with me!!


	5. A Potions Lesson

Here's chapter 5! I'm really sorry for it taking this long, but unfortunately school work doesn't do itself :( …

I'll try to be more prompt from now on :)

But enjoy this now!

Chapter 5

Harry, Ron and Hermione paced down to the dungeons, gearing up for potions with Snape as they went. They were still in wonder about what their new lessons would involve. Hermione had already popped to the library before the bell rang to check out any facts on Zanpakutōs. She had sadly failed. There was not a single sign of any such word.

"It's quite odd you know how the word isn't even Latin sounding, as most magical things are. It's more oriental, if you catch my drift." Hermione drabbed on and on. Harry was barely aware of her, while Ron was hanging on to every word, offering the occasional "yeah, you're right" or "you're so smart!"

"Do you reckon it's really true?" Harry cut in.

Hermione looked at him, confused.

"Is what really true?" Ron and Hermione said together.

"Whether these 'guests' are really from some secret location called the 'Soul Society'. I mean… it all sounds kind of fishy to me. Why would they even want to be here?"

This was the same thing that had got Harry puzzled from the very start. Had they these "elite" fighters really put down everything they were doing and come over to Hogwarts to fill in for Defence Against the Dark Arts?

"Well I believe it" said Hermione.

"Me to!" said Ron immediately afterwards.

Sighing, she continued, "Professor McGonagall made it quite clear. And, she did say that we'd find it hard to accept… and you are. Plus, they're mentioned in 'Magic from the Past'"

Ron looked flabbergasted.

"That's the only reason that you believe all of this? Cos the teacher said so and they're briefly referred to in a book about old legends."

"Ugh! Ron, you said you believed it too!"

They had now arrived in Snape's classroom. They took seats at the back, near a cauldron full of a viscous, slimy, green potion.

"Alright then, I guess I am with Harry on this one." Ron frown, defeated.

"But then again, Ron" murmured Harry, "That giant guy from yesterday with the bells in his insane hair – he looked like the real thing!"

"Argh! Stop changing your mind and making me look stupid!" Ron complained.

"Yeah, exactly Harry," Hermione smiled, ignoring Ron, "especially because of all that pressure he put on everyone. It was nothing like I'd ever felt before. Umm…well nothing happened to you did it, Harry?" She whispered the last part.

"Oh yeah, thanks for making it clear that I was the freak in that hall." Harry had become worried about this. Every time something strange happened, he was always the one that stood out. Just when he thought it was all over. He didn't have any answers as usual and now they were dealing with something that was different even in the wizarding world.

They sat quietly now, as the other students who were taking potions this year filed in. The classroom had once gained back its cold, drab atmosphere since Professor Slughorn had retired again. Snape's gloomy personality had painted itself across the walls with skulls, gruesome paintings and substances with foul smells.

Amongst the students continuing with potions were Malfoy, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. There were also some others from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, though Harry did not know them very well as Gryffindors usually shared lessons with the Slytherins.

"Sit down" was Snape's first comment as he swept into the classroom.

"A point from Gryffindor, Potter for entering a classroom before the teacher has arrived."

Oh great! Now he was being punished for being early to a lesson. He clenched his fist but didn't bother arguing as he knew that was exactly the excuse Snape need to take more points off.

"We have a guest in class today. This is the Captain of the sixth division, Kuchiki Byakuya." He said, coldly gesturing to the back of the class.

Everyone suddenly turned, shocked to see the extremely handsome man from breakfast standing behind Harry and his friends' table. They had not seen him walk in, and he was definitely not there when he came in.

"Good morning." His voice was deep and grave. All the females in the class let out slow breaths.

"Turn to the front!" Snape commanded and they quickly turned. "Today we will be preparing a concoction of polyjuice potion, at least the start of it. On September 14th you will all come down here to add lacewing flies at precisely 1.47 am and not a minute earlier or later. Make a note." He gave dirty looks to Harry and Ron as he said this.

"Captain Kuchiki will write the instructions for today on the board, and you will begin."

Eyes turned to the back, but Captain Kuchiki was nowhere in sight.

"I said eyes to the front!"

The class jumped. They found Captain Kuchiki already at the front at the blackboard, almost finished with the instructions. His handwriting was in calligraphy, absolutely beautiful.

"The one who completes the task first will receive something from me. Please try your best." Captain Kuchiki said sternly.

Eyes lingered on him.

"Begin." hissed Snape.

An abrupt rustle for cauldrons and ingredients began. Soon the room was filled with a dirty brown mist. Hermione had of course made the furthest progress. Her potion resembled a batch of rotting blood, an ideal 'stage two' as shown in the textbook. Harry knew it was totally unfair as Hermione had already successfully concocted the polyjuice potion in their second year at Hogwarts. He didn't dare mention it in case Snape or the captain overheard. I would probably cost him suspension or worse… not that it mattered anymore.

Captain Kuchiki was wandering around the class, a copy of 'One thousand magical herbs and fungi' in hand, examining the potions. Harry wondered if their kind used potions of any sort. He came over to their table. He looked at Ron's potion of dirty orange glop with a raised eyebrow. Ron glared at him as he flattened, or rather crushed his beetle's eyes with a silver knife.

Ha! Harry thought. Ron was so jealous. Captain Kuchiki inspected Hermione's potion and nodded approvingly before stepping to the side to look at Malfoy's.

Hermione was heartened. The other girls shot Hermione looks of distaste. They were not let her win without a fight.

In fact, Lavender Brown tried so hard that she almost accidentally tipped a flask of liquid seaweed over Kuchiki Byakuya's robes. It looked like she had, though he had in fact evaded it. Ron was unhappy about this. The captain kept his serious look, and simply walked away. Snape took five points from Gryffindor.

"Damn! Sooo close" Ron said.

"Oh no! Do you think he saw that, Parvati?" Lavender said, now all in a commotion.

By the end of the lesson Hermione's potion was still flawless, and Snape had no choice but to sourly declare her the winner. Captain Kuchiki indicated for her to come to the front of the class, where he stood. From inside his robes he produced a small paper box and handed it to Hermione. He then said something inaudible to her and left the room just as the bell rang.

Hermione was standing motionless, and then she actually spun on the spot.

"Five rolls of parchment on why the polyjuice potion takes one month to brew hand in on Thursday class dismissed." Snape said all this very quickly and in the same breath.

The class shoved and pushed past Hermione, but she seemed to pay them no heed.

"Hey! Hermione! Don't you have Arithmancy next?" Harry shook her from her trance while Ron stood back looking even more annoyed than before.

"Oh yes!" she said, now back in reality, "excuse me." She rushed away.

"Free now, Ron?" Hey!"

"Hmm, yeah" Ron breathed, "What's with that guy? He's a teacher, right?"

"Well, I guess. But, he's more of a kind of –" but Harry could not finish his sentence as his head was thumped by a fat book.

"Ow!" He and Ron shouted together. Snape was standing behind them clasping two copies of 'one thousand herbs and fungi', their own copies in fact.

"Get out of my classroom, Potter and Weasley." he threw the books into their arms, gave them a final filthy look and stalked away.

They returned to the Gryffindor common room and dropped their books on to the floor. They were in no mood to do Snape's stupid homework. They tried to collapse into a squashy sofa by the fire, only it was already occupied.


	6. A Disturbed Free Lesson

Here's Chapter 6!

And let me take this opportunity to wish everyone an early Happy New Year!!

Chapter 6

They jumped up so quickly that they almost fell into the fire!

"Who're you?" asked the occupants.

"I think we should bloody well be asking you that!" Ron thundered. A few Gryffindors looked up from what they were doing and gave Ron odd looks, but he continued.

"You two aren't Gryffindors! Who the hell are you?"

"We are for this year, apparently. The old hat said so." stranger number one said, gently.

"Are you from that Soul Society place with the captains and other stuff?" questioned Harry, forgetting his manners – the man he had just addressed was clad in a Captain's attire.

"How rude!" stranger number two said, standing up and facing Harry, "Captain, please allow me to beat up this child! He's being very indecent towards you, sir!" Although threatening, the man was collected and calm while piercing Harry with a death gaze.

Harry took a step back, instinctively reaching for his wand when he saw that his angry opponent was now unsheathing a sword that was tucked into the sash that was holding his robes together.

"No need, no need, Hisagi-kun. We must get along. Now, boys, let me introduce myself," said the captain, also getting up, "I am Jūshirō Ukitake, captain of the thirteenth division. Please call me Captain Ukitake."

Harry immediately liked this man; he was polite with friendly hazel eyes. He was tall and had straight, long white hair. He raised his handed, smiling and Harry shook it. Ron shook it too. The captain then turned to the man called Hisagi, who was now sheathing his sword.

"Hi, I'm Shūhei Hisagi, vice-captain of the ninth squad. Pleased to meet you." He said, although not sounding like he meant it.

Hisagi had a punk-like appearance, with his black hair, three scars running down the right side of his face and two tattoos: a blue-striped tattoo running across his left cheek and over the bridge of his nose as well as the number 69 imprinted into his left cheek.

"Umm hello, I'm Har-" But Harry could not finish because Captain Ukitake had suddenly begun to cough violently. He collapsed into the sofa, still coughing and also now spewing blood into his hands.

"Captain! Oh no!" Hisagi had a terrified look on his face. He froze, and looked around frantically.

"Blast! W-why a-at a time like t-this?" spluttered Ukitake, still struggling.

"Oh god!" Came a voice from the portrait hole. Harry and Ron turned to see the bald man from the train that had tried to fight Ron and just behind him, climbing through the wall was the big red-headed man.

"Hisagi! What the hell?" shouted Renji.

"He's had an attack!" said Hisagi.

"Yeah, we can see that!" hollered Ikkaku.

Harry and Ron looked around and saw that most of the Gryffindors were departing through various staircases to the dormitories and out of the common room, they clearly did not want to be involved in this!

"Harry, lets go." urged Ron.

"No, we've got to help!"

"Okay, fine." said Ron, approaching the sick captain.

"Are you okay, sir?"

"Well, clearly not, Red!" bellowed Ikkaku right in Ron's face.

"Only trying to help here, while you lot are standing around doing nothing!" Ron roared back.

"You wanna make something of it, Red."

"Bring it!" Ron reached into his robes for his wand, Ikkaku already had his sword drawn.

"E-exc-cuse me, boys? Can someone help the dying man?" the captain's coughing was easing up but he was still pale. Ron and Ikkaku stopped.

"Uh, do you guys want to take him down to the nurse?" Harry asked Renji and Hisagi.

"Yes. Please lead the way." said the calm Hisagi.

"Come on, Ikkaku, help us carry him" said Renji.

They went to try and lift Ukitake, but failed a few times first.

"But he's heavy!" complained Ikkaku.

"How do they let you in 11th company?" said Renji. Ikkaku reached for his sword, dropping Ukitake's feet at the same time, causing him to splatter more blood onto his robes at the same time.

"G-gentlemen, please help me first. Then take it o-outside later."

"Yes, sir" They obeyed in union.

The journey down to the hospital wing was quite a troublesome one. They tripped while descending and shouted in confusion as the staircases moved abruptly. Harry thought it was lucky that they actually managed not to drop the captain once during the whole journey. Hisagi explained along the way that captain Ukitake suffered from Tuberculosis and was often ill and unable to attend to his duties. Instead, most of the time the thirteenth division was run by two weirdoes who were obsessed with the captain and worshipped him like a God.

"T-there's nothing wr-wrong with Kiyone and Sentarō. They t-take care of me. A-although, they c-can be tiring." Ukitake managed to say.

They finally arrived at the hospital wing, and leaving Ukitake with Madam Pomfrey, Harry and Ron decided to take their leave. The other three raced in front of them, still in an excited state.

"Oi!" called Ron. They turned.

"Aren't you going make sure that he's okay?"

"Well he's not any of our captains. We've got to find an appropriate member from his squad or at least another captain."

"Umm, okay. Need any help? We've got a free lesson and nothing better to do anyway." said Harry.

"Yeah, that would be good." said Renji, "We don't really know our way around."

"Well, I'm not bothered – I'm gonna go find Yumichika." said Ikkaku, and ran off down the stairs.

"We're looking for some Devinatition classroom? My friend from 13th said she'd be in there." said Renji to them.

Harry and Ron groaned.

"Problem?"

"Nah, it's fine, we'll take you there. That's Divination by the way."

They started back up the stairs and towards the North tower. They were of course so hesitant because of Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney's obsession of predicting Harry's death every time she saw him. They arrived outside the door, and Harry was about to knock, but Renji and Hisagi stepped in front of him.

Renji rapped on the door, waited for a "come in" and strode in with Hisagi.

"We're extremely sorry to interrupt you're teaching, ma'am." said Hisagi.

"But it is most urgent that we speak to Rukia Kuchiki!"

The two gave a small bow to Professor Trelawney.

"Yes, of course. What well mannered boys. Miss Kuchiki please take your time. I shall read your entrails another time."

A petite girl with black hair emerged from the swarm of Hogwarts students, looking quite relieved.

"What's going on Renji?" she asked.

"Well, actually…" he started.

"Captain Ukitake has had a sudden and violent attack." finished Hisagi.

Rukia clapped her hands to her mouth, her eyes widened.

"Way to give it to her gently, dude."

Hisagi shrugged.

"Don't worry Rukia, the captain's in the school's medical facility. I'll take you there."

The three of them left, leaving Harry and Ron quite forgotten.

"Oh, by the way, thanks for the help. What were you're names?" Hisagi called back.

"Harry"

"Ron"

"Great, see you guys later."

The bell rang.

"Oh no! We're gonna be late for third! Let's get our books quick!"

They raced back to the common room.


	7. Zanpakutōs

I apologise for not uploading in about 8 or 9 months! But here's the next bit...

They flew down the stairs three steps at time, instinctively missing the trick steps but still almost falling face down when a bend came. Ron nearly ran right into Neville on the fourth floor however, for once in his life luck was on Neville's side and it was Ron, who tried to dodge, but instead ended up flat against a red velvet tapestry. Although Neville apologised over and over again for being in the way as Ron scrambled around for his scattered books and oddments he still shoved him out the way before sprinting down the staircase again. Harry gave Neville a 'sorry about him' look before dashing after his best friend. If they hadn't been in such a hurry to make it to their next lesson he probably would have made Ron say sorry. But right now they had to make to their "Zanpakutō" class and pray that Captain Hitsugaya wouldn't kill them.

"Faster, Ron! The bell rang about ten minutes ago! Its detention if we don't get there soon!"

"We'd already be there by now if it weren't for Neville back there!"

"Oh, shut up – you know that was you fault."

"Whatever."

They were in the grand entrance hall now; it was empty as everyone was already in lessons. Luckily the front door was ajar and they slid through the crack. "Zanpakutō" was to take place in the grounds. Spotting their class about fifty metres away, they hurried to join the line of students.

"You're late!" bellowed captain Hitsugaya. For a small child his voice was unusually booming and gruff. "Don't ever let me catch you being late to my lesson again. I do NOT tolerate lateness with my own squad, if you think you're an exception, you WILL be punished. Are we clear?"

"Y-yes sir." said Harry and Ron together. Ron looked shaken. This child had a lot more authority than Ron had given him credit for.

"You two in Gryffindor? I'm subtracting ten points each from the total for your tardiness. Now get in line and shut up!"

They were quite scared and immediately did as they were told. Hermione was giving them looks of disapproval, while Malfoy was sneering on the other end of the line. Harry recognized the vice-captain next to the captain – the strawberry blonde with large breasts. She had her lips tightly snapped shut as if trying to force down a large laugh.

"Now as I was saying, you are to address me as 'Captain Hitsugaya' or 'sir'. You all probably think you're being bossed around by some ten year old." as he said this a few people straightened. "Of course you all have no idea but I've had more experience than you will ever have in your short lives!

Confused looks followed, of course.

"What? How old are these people?" thought Harry. "Wait! May be he means he's fought more battles or something."

"Isn't the captain cute?" sang the vice-captain from behind. "Despite what he says, the captain's a child in the Soul Society, but a child prodigy no less! When we first met he –" she said fondly.

"Keep your mouth shut Matsumoto!" shouted Hitsugaya, he looked severely embarrassed. She obeyed but continued to smile from behind.

A child only in the Soul Society! Okay, maybe these people were excessively old.

"Today I'm going to teach you about Zanpakutōs. The word literally means 'soul-cutter' and we use them as our weapons while fighting enemies and keeping the peace in the Soul Society. This is what a Zanpakutō looks like."

Hitsugaya then drew out a katana from a sheath slung on his back. It shone in the sunlight, blinding Harry momentarily. He was expecting something a little more impressive than a simple sword.

"Doesn't look like much, eh?" said Matsumoto.

A few people shook their heads.

"Well of course not!" said the captain as though it was the most ridiculous question he'd heard in his life.

"This is just a Zanpakutō is its unreleased form. You see –" he gazed around the class, "Well, why isn't anyone taking notes?"

Hermione, suddenly recalling the very essence of who she was dived for her back pack and snatched out a quill and immediately began writing something. What a year out of practice does to you, sniggered Harry to himself. The captain lectured about the uniqueness of a Zanpakutō's released form depending on the user and so forth, and they took notes for another half an hour just sitting on the grass.

"Now for something interesting" said the captain, "but first, are there any questions?"

"Sir!" said Malfoy, "do we get to use Zanpakutōs too?"

"Well, obviously not! You're not a Shinigami, are you? You're a wizard."

Malfoy sunk back down on the ground looking disappointed. He wasn't the only one.

"Now take a look at the released form of my Zanpakutō!" The captain took a few steps back, took a breath and chanted, "Sit upon the frozen heavens! Hyōrinmaru!"

Everyone fell back as a great white blaze appeared in front of them. It rapidly rose towards the sky and scattered. Then there was a rumble of thunder followed by a flash of lightening. When everyone looked up the clear, bright September's day had vanished and had left black clouds sprawled across the sky threatening to pelt down heavy rain.

"My Zanpakutō, Hyōrinmaru is an ice element Zanpakutō. It gives me the ability to control all the water in the air, I can mould it to my will and even control the weather."

The class were too startled to say anything.

"Matsumoto, it's your turn" he said.

"But, captain!" protested the vice-captain, "You haven't even shown them your Bankai yet!"

"Freakin' do as I say!" Hitsugaya screamed.

"Alright, alright" she smiled.

Drawing her Zanpakutō from its sheath tucked into her sash, Matsumoto held the sword across her body with her hand hovering over and chanted, "Growl, Haineko!"

In an instant the blade vanished, as if it instantaneously turned to dust. The vice-captain simply stood with the hilt in her hand.

"My Zanpakutō is ash cat, Haineko. The blade turns to ash in its released form and cuts my opponent where ever the ash touches. I can control the movement of the ash with my hilt."

"Wow!" exclaimed Seamus, a few people down from Harry. "That's a massive advantage if no one can see the blades." A few people nodded in agreement.

"You could get them from anywhere, and they wouldn't even see it coming!"

"Indeed, but they could of course dodge it." Said captain Hitsugaya.

"How? They wouldn't be able to see it, right?" said Dean, confused.

"Well, this sort of release is pretty common in the Soul Society, and I still have a lot to teach you before you can understand. Who knows, you may see it in action sooner than you think."

They didn't know what he was talking about, but it was nearly the end of the lesson and the captain prepared to give them homework.

"You won't find any detailed information about Zanpakutōs in your library so I brought a few documents from the Soul Society for you." He said as Matsumoto tossed some heavy scrolls as them.

"Careful, Matsumoto! Those came from squad one's barracks!"

"Whoops! Sorry!" she said, apologetically.

"Read them through by next lesson." He said.

Ron's eye's turned round and he looked up at the captain like he'd just been told to slice his own head off with a Zanpakutō!

"But, next lesson's two days away!" He objected.

"So?" Hitsugaya answered back.

"This scroll's massive!"

"And?" Hitsugaya genuinely didn't seem to be able to see Ron's problem, though the frown on his face was enough to cause Ron to slink back down to his place.

Class was dismissed, and they trudged back towards the castle.


	8. I'm gonna kill you! Huh, why?

Chapter 8

"Finally!" groaned Ron, as he stumbled out of the sunlit, humid greenhouse.

"I thought today would never end!"

The three friends had finally been released from their torment, otherwise known as the first day of seventh year at Hogwarts. Harry was very tired and bored; he couldn't wait to sit down to a nice dinner in the Great Hall and then simply collapse in his four-poster bed. However his pleasant daydreams about baked potatoes and soft pillows were crushed when Hermione said:

"Well of course it's not over yet, you've both got a massive pile of homework"

"Argh!" Harry growled.

"What?" she demanded.

"You ruined my hope, Hermione! I'd totally forgotten about Snape's essay and that captain's reading thing!"

"Not to mention Professor Flitwick's 'practice the transformation charm' thing." Ron added.

"Well, if you'd started the reading assignment at break and lunchtime like me you would have been half done already!" she said, irritated. Harry could have thrown a book at her… if he could be bothered.

With nothing but distress on their minds now they crossed the pumpkin patch and made for the tall steps that lead to the castle. They hadn't climbed very high when they found an obstruction in their path. Harry had thought it was a boulder from further away but now he could see that it was in fact a very large person who was now getting up. It was the captain with the immense aura that they had seen last night. He really was massive, it seemed that he had been crouching down on the steps so they couldn't see his head before. Now he was standing over them his scarred face grinning, his drawn sword in hand. His long spiked hair and the fact that he was standing a few steps above them made him look enormous. Then he spoke, pointing his sword right at Harry.

"You!" he said, gruffly.

Harry simply nodded, very confused and intimidated.

"You're the one that didn't even flinch when I came in the room yesterday."

Harry remained silent.

"You must be strong! Even Ichigo was crushed to the ground when we first met!" he let out a great, thunderous laugh that shook them.

Harry had absolutely no idea what an Ichigo was. He felt Hermione trembling beside him and Ron seemed to have turned to stone.

"Let's go." Said Captain Kenpachi.

Harry finally found his voice and answered:

"I'm sorry? Go where, sir?"

The captain guffawed loudly again.

"A showdown of course. You and me, right here, right now." He grinned widely once more.

Still utterly bewildered Harry asked the captain again politely what he meant. The captain started to get angry. He had made himself perfectly clear. He took a step forward, knocking Hermione and Ron out the way, and forced Harry back down the steps.

"I'm talking about a fight, you little runt! I want to see how strong you are. Now I refuse to take 'no' as an answer. We're fighting now, wand versus steel. I want to slice you to ribbons – you're so not backing down. They told me that you defeated the strongest wizard that ever lived. I want to see of you're worth anything in the Shinigami realm."

"Yeah! Go Kenny! Go!" cheered the little pink haired girl they saw yesterday, who had suddenly appeared on Captain Kenpachi's shoulder.

"Yeah! You'll see Yachiru, I'm going to go all out and cut him into little pieces! HAHAHA!"

Harry took a few steps back, reaching for his wand, he could sense that this captain was not just playing around and intended to do exactly what he said. He didn't even look at his friends for help, but he could see them at the corners of his eyes scrambling up from the ground. All thoughts about the rules against attacking teachers suddenly fled from his mind. Removing his wand from his robes, he took up a duelling stance.

"That's more like it, kid. Let's do this!"

The captain took another pace forward, leering and raising his sword. Harry had no idea what spell to use, he'd never fought against someone with a sword before. Going quickly through the duelling jinxes he'd used recently in his mind, he selected one and tried it.

"Impedimenta!" he said chanted, though hesitantly. The spell worked; nevertheless it certainly wasn't the strongest spell he had ever cast. The jet of light shot straight into the centre Kenpachi's chest but he neither stumbled nor swayed. Like a fly hitting an elephant. The captain raised an eyebrow and scratched an ear.

"That's it? That's all you so called wizards can do?" the captain snorted, thoroughly disappointed.

"You're not even worth looking at. But, somehow I've got an impression that you didn't give that your all." He continued, "Come on, now! Do it like you mean it! I'm giving you one more chance!"

Harry was infuriated; none of his opponents had ever stood on the spot and said 'do it again' as though what he'd done was utterly useless. Well, not never. Harry remembered that time at the graveyard in his fourth year when Voldemort had done exactly that in front of all the Death Eaters, humiliating him. That wound him up even more. Though a weak spell, normally someone would have been at least dazed by Impedimenta. These people could not have been normal. He tried something else, louder and more confidently:

"SECTUMSEMPRA!" he shouted.

A dark curse so deadly it caused the opponent to spew blood from the point of penetration as if tens of swords suddenly and invisibly started slashing the enemy from all directions. This was the closest Harry could get to an equal attack. The effects seemed fruitful, and Harry regretted it the instant after he'd done it. He would be in so much trouble for this! The captain coughed as the blood escaped and cut worsened.

"Huh!" he said, "NOW WE'RE TALKING!" he was absolutely delighted! "Now it's my turn to do some damage, kid! Get ready!" He bellowed, laughing louder than ever.

Oh no! He was about to be slaughtered for what he'd just done! The captain should have collapsed, but no, he was more riled up than ever! Harry wanted to run, but he just couldn't. If what had happened next, hadn't, Harry probably wouldn't have survived.

Three swooping figures, suddenly and out of nowhere, were on Kenpachi and he was down. It was Renji, Ikkaku and the man with bob haircut, Yumichika.

"You guys! What the hell do you think you're doing? Get the bloody hell off!" The captain hollered.

"Captain, you're not supposed to attack the students here. The captain commander told you specifically." Said Ikkaku.

"We've been sent by Captain Kuchiki to subdue you." Said Renji.

"That pretty boy bitch! What the hell does he think he's doing, messing with me?" Kenpachi shouted again.

Harry had accidentally been knocked to the ground when Renji pounced down from the sky and was frantically picking himself up, he had missed the first part of the Shinigamis' conversation. All he caught was Kenpachi screaming:

"Let me go! I'm gonna kick that bitch's ass straight to hell! I'll pluck out every strand of that pretty hair!"

"Run, Harry, run!" yelled Renji over the hustle while trying to keep Kenpachi down (which was of course a mammoth of a task).

Harry didn't need to be told twice. He picked up his bag and fled. He sprinted up the steps in a minute and looked back briefly at the top to see that Yumichika had been flung off Kenpachi's back and he also saw Yachiru biting the top of Ikkaku's head. He didn't wait much longer so that Kenpachi could chase after him again. He turned and bounded to the castle.


	9. Another Sorting Ceremony

Chapter 9

Harry burst into the great hall panting, with a sweaty brow. He received several odd looks as he hurried to the Gryffindor table, where Hermione and Ron were sitting down to their dinner.

"Thanks for the back up guys!" He said angrily.

Both immediately protested that it was the other's idea to run for it, and then they looked down at their plates, ashamed. Ron shoved chips into his mouth and Hermione began reading a book she had in her lap. Harry, still fuming, slammed himself down on to the bench opposite his two best friends. Silence lingered between them. Harry didn't eat anything, despite his hunger; he just stared at them, waiting for them to break the silence. Finally when he couldn't bear it any longer, and his stomach gave a loud roar of reminder that it needed feeding, he said, "He could've – would've probably killed me!" He said it quietly, not wanting to rouse any of his peers form their own dinnertime rituals.

"We're sorry, Harry!" Hermione said, now near tears at hearing the seriousness of the situation.

"We panicked, mate!" Ron cut in, "Didn't you want to run for your life? That guy's terrifying!"

"You still abandoned me!" Harry raged.

"Well, to be honest, we thought you'd be right behind us…" she said, now sounding as if something was not quite so clear. "What actually happened?"

Harry told them about Sectumsempra.

"WHAT?" shouted Ron.

"Hush, Mr Weasley." said Professor Flitwick as he trotted past.

They waited for him to take his place at the staff table before continuing their conversation.

"Harry! You used _that_ spell?" whispered Hermione, astounded.

"Why, mate?"

"I dunno, it just did it after _Impedimenta_ didn't work…"

"Hang on, Impedimenta? How did it not work? Did you get nervous and mess up the spell?" Ron asked.

"Umm, well no. It didn't affect him… well okay, it was slightly weak cos I was hesitant, but then he dared me to attack him harder, so well, I did."

They stared and Harry carried on.

"I don't know! It just came to me! I just did it! He made me so mad, I wanted to kill him!"

"Insane! That's mental!" Ron couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Hermione just sat dumbfounded and utterly perplexed.

"This has been one hell of a day." Harry sighed, putting his head down on the table.

"Let's talk about this later; the hall's getting a bit crowded." Hermione pointed out.

It was. Usually at dinner, everyone came in at different times and as a result there was always plenty of space. Now all of a sudden, the whole school seemed to be coming down. Ginny came to sit next to Harry and pecked him on the cheek. He felt a bit better.

"Good first day?" she asked, brightly.

"Uh, well…" Harry started.

"What?"

"I'll tell you later."

She raised an eyebrow but dropped the subject.

"So, have you heard the news?"

"Hmm, what news?" Ron asked, sitting up suddenly, hoping for some gossip.

"There's going to be a second sorting ceremony on now."

"For whom?" asked Ron and Harry together.

"Wow! You two are so dull sometimes! The Shinigami of course!" Hermione exclaimed. Ginny nodded.

"But, me and Ron met some of them today who said that they'd been sorted already into Gryffindor."

"Really?" said Ginny in wonder.

Harry continued telling them about their awkward free period but the hall was called to attention by Professor McGonagall who was standing at the end of the hall at the teacher's table tapping her glass with her fork.

"As some of you already may know, this evening we are conducting a second sorting ceremony for our special, foreign friends at their request. As all of you already know the procedure, we shall proceed."

Professor Sprout brought out the old, withered hat and set it on its usual stool. The doors of the Great Hall opened and in walked the Shinigami. There were more new ones. Each captain, clothed in white, was accompanied by their respective vice-captains at their side. Hisagi was not with a captain and walked in the middle alone. Harry also noticed that Captain Ukitake was absent. Poor guy's still in the hospital wing he thought. Captain Kenpachi was there, Harry turned his head away as he passed. The lower ranked officers were at the rear of the line. They strode between the house tables and lined up at the front – the vice-captains stood behind their captains. The sorting then began.

"Captain Genryūsai Yamamoto." Professor McGonagall called.

This was a captain they had not seen. He had headed the line of Shinigami with a grey haired vice-captain. He was extremely elderly looking, with a bald head and a long white beard and moustache. There was a big X-shaped scar on his forehead and he walked with a wooded walking stick.

"Their Dumbledore I'll bet." Ron whispered to Harry across the table.

The ancient captain stepped forth confidently, sat on the stool and allowed Professor Sprout to place the Sorting Hat on his head. No sooner had it touched his skin, the hat yelled,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table erupted into applause as usual and the captain got up and took his place back in the line. His stern expression had not changed the whole time.

"Gin Ichimaru"

The sly-faced captain sat on the stool and Harry shivered as the hat slid past the man's eyes leaving only his everlasting, creepy grin was visible. The hat paused for a minute before making its decision, which was,

"SLYTHERIN!"

There was clapping though not so enthusiastic as what Captain Yamamoto got.

The ceremony continued and the results were as follows:

Kuchiki Byakuya – Hufflepuff

Hitsugaya Toshiro – Ravenclaw

Kenpachi Zaraki – Slytherin

Chōjirō Sasakibe – Hufflepuff

Abarai Renji – Gryffindor

Matsumoto Rangiku – Ravenclaw

Yachiru Kusajishi – Slytherin

Hisagi Shuuhei – Gryffindor

Madarame Ikkaku – Gryffindor

Yumichika Ayasegawa – Ravenclaw

Kuchiki Rukia – Hufflepuff

The hat was removed and Professor McGonagall made one final announcement.

"As a special treat for you the staff has asked our guests if we may observe one of their training sessions."

Expressions of interest arose.

"We will pick two names at random and the ones chosen will engage in friendly combat so that we can watch how duels are performed in the Soul Society."

This seemed to excite the whole hall, everyone looked up towards Shinigami eagerly.

A bowl was brought out and Professor McGonagall tapped it with her wand. After a moment a piece of folded parchment flew out towards the ceiling and as it floated down, she caught it and unfolded it.


	10. Baboon Snake and Giant

No! I didn't vanish off the face of the Earth…. In case you were wondering…

Right…so I haven't written in a while but the story's still going on and now we're moving on to chapter 10!

Okay, until now we've been looking at everything from Harry's point of view but now let's see what the shinigami are thinking…

Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Renji shifted uncomfortably on the grass he was standing on. High above and around him were the faces of curious, anticipating adolescents. They were all expecting a show, a battle worthy of shinigami and wizards. What they didn't know was that all they were going to see was a miserable spectacle of a vice-captain getting utterly destroyed by a psycho. Renji had been fairly pleased when his name had been the first to be announced by the school's headmistress. He thought Zabimaru and himself could give a great performance and please the Captain Commander by making a good impression on this school that the Soul Society were so determined to have as an ally. Of course Renji still did not know why. Asking captain Kuchiki had just annoyed the man and Renji simply earned himself a stern glare and comment of 'know your place and follow orders'. He glanced up at the stands again, taking in the atmosphere of tension and pressure; the students were staring down quietly waiting for the match to begin. There was no cheering or shouting as might happen before a 'friendly' battle back home. Renji supposed they didn't know whose side to take though he could definitely use some encouragement right now. He fidgeted with Zabimaru in his hands, the hilt was damp but that was just because of his sweating palms. In a few moments a bell would ring somewhere and the end would come…well he probably wouldn't die since captain Kuchiki and Hitsugaya were sitting in the stands watching. He gulped and looked up at his opponent; Captain Kenpachi was stood twenty paces from him grinning widely as he usually did just before a battle.

"Get ready my ex-subordinate!" Kenpachi bellowed to Renji. "I'm thrashing you for siding with that pretty-haired guy!"

Kenpachi drew out his sword and pointed it at Renji menacingly. Renji took a step backwards but Kenpachi took two forward. Gulping again Renji looked to the stands towards Captain Kuchiki hoping for some look of support or trust. Of course as usual Byakuya was wearing his stern expression and didn't move an inch when Renji looked at him. Hardly surprised at all yet still disappointed Renji turned back to Kenpachi. He knew looking at Ikkaku or Yumichika would just make the situation worse as they were clearly on their captain's side, hardly daring to go against him, not that Kenpachi cared about their opinion.

_DONG!_

There was the bell, thought Renji. He immediately backed off to a further end of the Quidditch pitch. He knew he'd have to fight to the max straight away if he was to even have a chance of survival. Kenpachi stayed where he was but shouted at Renji, "GET OVER HERE YOU COWARD AND TRY AND CUT ME IF YOU DARE!"

Renji knew that's exactly what he had to do or Kenpachi would come at him and finish him. If he was lucky he wouldn't have to get close to Kenpachi anyway since his style of fighting was long range in Bankai form. The match was only set to last twenty minutes; all he had to do was last that long – there was no real question of beating Kenpachi anyway.

'Right!' Renji said to himself, "BANKAI!" he roared, "HIHIō ZABIMARU!"

In a huge flare of red light and reiatsu Renji released his Zanpakutō. After the flash faded there stood the vice captain now wearing some extra piece of fur around his shoulders, of course surrounded by his released bankai form of Zabimaru, a massive segmented snake.

"Go Zabimaru!" shouted Renji. With that he flung the snake forward towards Kenpachi.

"Huh, one stupid, big, slow snake," said Kenpachi, "there's no way something like this could possibly even scratch me…forget defeating me _vice captain_." He said these last two words mockingly. Kenpachi simply pushed the snake away with a simple stroke from his left arm.

Renji tried not to listen and flung his Bankai forward once more with greater force. It fell hard on Kenpachi's head and for a second Renji thought he had caused the Captain to fall. This was not the case. Kenpachi had dodged and looked slightly bored.

"Come here and cut me you idiot." said Kenpachi, "That damned snake isn't going to do anything!"

Renji sneaked a look at Byakuya again; his captain didn't look too impressed. Whether that was because he was a failure of because of Kenpachi's loudness was unclear but he had to somehow liven up the show. He called back Hihiō Zabimaru and reduced it back to its Shikai form. I need a strategy, he thought.

He ran at Kenpachi, who was standing with open arms welcoming his attack. He slashed and to his shock was able to draw blood. Good! He had gotten stronger indeed.

"Not bad, Renji." Kenpachi said slowly turning around to Renji who had leapt over the giant as he cut. He raised his sword to strike but Renji was already ahead of him. He aimed a second slash at Kenpachi's back – it cut again.

"You bastard! Let me have a go now!" Kenpachi flared.

Oh no you don't he thought.

Renji re-released his Bankai wordlessly and in a moment it was wrapped around the confused captain.

Harry's Point of View (a few moments ago)

"So they're actually going to fight down there?" asked Ron, "Like with swords and stuff?"

It was still a bit difficult to believe. It's true that Wizarding duels are a common thing, I mean the school has a club and everything, but swords! Surely that would mean blood! Harry knew it wouldn't scare _him_ or anything, or even the other seventh years who had fought alongside him at the Battle of Hogwarts. But he was worried about the kids in the lower years. How were the teachers allowing this? These were the thoughts passing through Harry's mind at the time Renji was standing down on the Quidditch pitch, awaiting his doom.

Hermione looked uneasy too and Ron was babbling as usual (until Professor McGonagall had told him to hush up). The rest of the crowd seemed to be in silence. There was no 'Gryffindor side' or 'Slytherin side' as there normally is for a Quidditch match; everyone had come in and was sitting randomly in the stadium. Harry noticed that he and his friends were only sitting a few seats from two Shinigami captains – Hitsugaya and Kuchiki to be exact. In the dead silence of the stadium Harry could make out parts of their hushed conversation. Well, really it was Hitsugaya passing the comments while Captain Kuchiki occasionally nodded. The latter had a stern, fixed gaze down at his vice captain, which didn't change when Renji looked up at him. This is what Harry heard.

"Slightly unlucky, Captain Kuchiki," Hitsugaya began, "that your lieutenant should face Captain Kenpachi." Hitsugaya sounded sorry for his colleague.

A slight nod from Byakuya, followed by half a minute of silence after which Hitsugaya realised he was to receive no reply and continued, "Will he last the time allowed, do you think? Has his training made him strong enough?"

No movement from the 6th squad's captain. "What will you do if he gets out of control?"

_DONG!_

As Renji retreated below Byakuya raised an eyebrow and sat a little straighter (if that were possible).

"Captain Kuchiki, you haven't answered me. The Captain Commander left us in charge. If the man does anything to –" but Byakuya cut Hitsugaya off.

"Captain Hitsugaya, please remember that it is my subordinate in combat currently, thus my responsibility to do what will be done, if need be." Hitsugaya looked taken aback. He gave Captain Kuchiki a kind of _"whatever"_ kind of look and shrugged back in his seat, frowning. On his other side vice captain Matsumoto tried to put her hand on his shoulder but he swotted it away.

Meanwhile on the pitch Renji seemed to have put some plan into action and when the rest of the crowd gasped Harry was pulled away from eavesdropping on the two captains and found that he was waving a gigantic wooden snake at Kenpachi. The snake was forced to lunge at the huge captain but they soon found he had dodged. Kenpachi seemed to be shouting something at Renji but no one could hear as they were too far down. Then the snake was gone. In another swift movement Renji cut Kenpachi, and then again before re-releasing his snake wrapping the man with it. It seemed to be squeezing him.

Back down on the pitch if you could hear Kenpachi talking you would have heard him say "Huh, pathetic!"

But as the people in the stadium could not the next thing they saw was Kenpachi slightly contracting his muscles and Hihiō Zabimaru broken to pieces and flying in all directions in a great burst of light. Kenpachi's spiritual power was so great that the pieces flew into the spectators and screams could be heard from the targets. Some of the teachers and students who had been quick enough used a shield charm to stop some of them from hitting people. Harry and Ron had been two of these people. Along the bench the two captains had stood as well, their swords drawn. In a second Captain Kuchiki was gone.

"How did he get there so fast?" Hermione said. Down on the pitch Byakuya had confronted Kenpachi; their swords were crossed. Renji was on the ground in a ball behind his captain. He slowly reached for the hilt of his, now destroyed, sword beside him. In a second all the broken blocks of Renji's bankai had vanished, and the original katana, which Renji wore was back.

Renji's point of view

What a loser Renji felt like! Complete failure! He tried to stand and saw that his Captain was there.

"Kenpachi, you have dishonored the Soul Society." Byakuya was saying.

"Oh shut up, Kuchiki!"

"What do you mean by attacking the students of this establishment? Do you forget our orders?"

"It's not my fault that they were in the way!" he bellowed!

"How feeble. What a barbaric rogue you are. I believe the Captain Commander was wrong to send you, but he would not listen to counsel."

"Listen you powdered up, prissy noble! If you got a problem with me, let me slice you up right here! But I know what my mission is!"

"I shall take that challenge to silence you and in your failure you shall cooperate thereafter instead of tearing around as you please. But for the sake of propriety let us leave and continue elsewhere."

"Doesn't matter to me where I cut you up. Shut your fancy talk and move it or I'll have you now!"

And they were gone.

Harry was utterly bewildered, as was everyone else. The teachers dismissed them, and as the walked back up to the castle Harry could have sworn he heard the clashing of swords on the ramparts of the castle.


	11. Strawberryhead

I'm having a sudden brainwave of ideas for this Fanfiction! I can't wait to write them all out! Hopefully I'll have a few more chapters up before long, but university has now started again and I can't make any promises. Just praying that because I have the ideas I can write them out faster!

And also, thank you all so much for all the support and reviews! I definitely would love to hear feedback! Anything that you feel! Thanks again! =]

* * *

The next couple of weeks went by a lot faster than the first two days had. No more Shinigami duels or Captains fainting in common rooms. The students had their lessons with the Shinigami instead of Defence Against the Dark Arts, as promised. A different teacher showed up for a few of lessons, each lecturing them on a different aspect of Shinigami lives and what they did. Apparently some kind of Shinigami academy existed in the Soul Society, like Hogwarts, that trained young spirits to become Shinigami. After their training the graduates were assigned to a force from the thirteen protection squads, each lead by one captain. Rank was decided by seat and the lower your seat, the higher your rank. After Hitsugaya and Matsumoto had finished teaching them about Zanpakutōs they had Captain Ichimaru and his assistant-captain, Izuru Kira teach them about Hollows. Kira was a pale, blonde, quiet sort of person. He mostly lurked at the back of the class and only spoke when offering help to students with their work. Captain Ichimaru as usual wore his eerie grin and had his eyes closed. He always stood at the front and lectured, a board-pointer in hand, indicating different concepts he had written with it. Most of the students tried to get Kira to help them when they could, as they couldn't stand the silver-haired captain hissing in their ears. Harry didn't blame them but luckily he and Ron had Hermione to rely for help (of course she preferred they didn't).

They were just at the end of the first of these lessons on the Friday of the third week of term when Captain Ichimaru said "Izuru, why don-cha hand out the homework I've set. Then y'all can go. Enjoy your weekend! Don't get hurt now." He grinned even wider, then turned and vanished.

Harry, as well as everyone else, had gotten used to this by now, though they still had no idea how the Shinigami were doing it. Apparition was of course impossible within Hogwarts and the grounds! Ron had consulted Hermione shortly after the Shinigami Duel as to whether she had read anything about it in the library, but she angrily responded that she had not. The anger was not directed at Ron, who was nevertheless hurt, but at the fact that she could not find any information about the Shinigami or where they were from in any book in the library. Harry was amused at this. This was the one class where Hermione did not know the answers before she went to the lesson. It tormented her beyond hope and yet she still had not given up looking for the tiniest hint of Shinigami whenever she could! He kept this glee in Hermione's misery between himself and Ginny. Since Ron and Hermione were going out now, it was probably best if he didn't laugh at her in front of him, though no doubt he found it funny too. This was not the only reason Harry had to be happy; it was a Friday, he didn't have so much homework that he couldn't relax tonight and the weather was surprisingly warm and sunny despite the fact that it was almost October. For this reason the trio decided to walk down to the lake's edge and unwind for a bit before dinner. Apparently, this was what many others had in mind too. They walked in silence, with Hermione pouring over their homework from Captain Ichimaru, Ron gazing at the sky and Harry simply trying to forget everything. This was however difficult due to Parvati and Lavender giggling and gossiping behind them.

"Urgh! He's way too weird! The lesson was really boring too!" Lavender was saying.

"I know! The vice-captain isn't that cute either… If only we could have _you know who_" Parvati added.

They giggled loudly. Ron furrowed his eyebrows at this.

"Yes, yes!" she said.

"Captain Kuchiki!" they both said together, dreamily.

At this Ron snapped. He turned and shouted "OH MY GOD, SHUT UP! CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE TRYING TO CHILL OUT HERE?"

The girls looked shocked and quickly walked away, muttering something to each other. Fuming, Ron turned back. Hermione seemed to have ignored him while several nearby people increased their distance from them.

"Ron, you can't keep screaming at everyone who makes a reference towards that man. He hasn't really done anything to you." Harry tried to calm Ron down, though he knew what it was that Ron was still angry about. At the end of their first potions lesson Captain Kuchiki had given Hermione a present for having the best potion. Ron, that night, had questioned Hermione like a criminal about what he had given her, and more importantly what he had whispered to her! Hermione could see that Ron was jealous and tried to playfully deny that it was 'nothing'. But after he made a scene about it in the Gryffindor common room she gave in. Inside the box was a single block of chocolate. She had showed it to both Ron and Harry. The chocolate was shaped like a kind of cartoon character, none that Harry recognised but it kind of looked like a cloud with arms and legs. Why Captain Kuchiki would give anyone such a thing was beyond him. Hermione answered this.

"What he told me was that he had his subordinates make them to raise money for something but they weren't selling to other squads. He wanted me to figure out what was wrong with them." Ron had looked blankly at Hermione.

"What? That's what he said! Though it's obvious why! I mean look at the design!"

"I bet they taste rubbish too! That guy definitely isn't the type who cook!" Ron said snidely. "Anyway… he probably wants the money to have his hair done or something." He snorted as his own joke.

"Well, why don't we find out" Harry had suggested.

They nodded, and Ron (pretty sure of what he had said) gulped down his immediately. After a second he frowned.

"What? Is it bad?" they asked. And after he didn't answer they proceeded to eat their own pieces.

"Oh my gosh, it's better than Honeydukes best chocolate!" Hermione exclaimed. Harry had to agree. Ron's temper rose again. From that point on he decided that he hated Byakuya with a passion and reacted violently to any mention of him. Hermione in turn hated his childishness and began to take no notice of him whenever he acted the way he did at Parvati and Lavender.

Back in the present, Ron growled at Harry's advice as they carried on walking. As they got closer to the water's edge they saw two Shinigami sprawled out at the spot they were heading to. Renji couldn't be missed with his bright, blood red hair and the other small person was obviously Rukia. Renji must have heard them coming because he turned around and waved.

"Yo, Harry! Ron! How's it going?" he said.

"Fine, thanks." Harry answered.

Silence…

"Uh… nice day isn't it?" Ron said.

"Oh, yeah… You guys know Rukia, right?"

"Yeah! Umm, is your Captain okay now?"

"Yes, he's much better. Thank you for asking."

Luckily for everyone at that moment Ikkaku came running towards the lake, accompanied by Yumichika and broke the awkward conversation.

"Hey Renji, where've you been? We've been looking all over for you! Captain Kuchiki's fuming! Did you forget about the meeting?"

"Huh?" Renji said, confused.

"The Captain and Vice-captain meeting, you idiot! He just sent us to drag you over there."

"I know that it's today! But it's not time ye–" Renji raised his watch to eye level. "NOOOO! Shit, shit, shit! I lost track of time!"

Ikkaku and Yumichika sniggered.

"Damn it, he's gonna kill me!"

"Hell yeah!" Ikkaku said, still laughing.

"Renji, hurry up. Don't keep my brother waiting!" Rukia cried.

Renji sped off toward the castle. The two 11th division members followed, obviously eager to watch Renji get told off.

"Sorry about this, excuse me." Rukia told Harry and friends, and then she darted after the others.

The three stared after them for a while before finally settling down on the grassy bank.

"Is everyone from the Soul Society a complete nutcase?" asked Ron rhetorically as he laid back.

Harry chuckled and rested his head on his bag. What a term! Shinigami, swords… What could happen next he thought? He smiled happily as Hermione chattered on about the homework and the extra reading she planned to do after dinner – just like old times. Yes, the excitement of dark creatures and wizards had finally ended!

They weren't sitting long before Harry felt a strong breeze against his robes. And he knew something was wrong when Hermione said, "what the –?" He opened his eyes, and the sky all of a sudden seemed to have turned dark! There were no clouds, yet the bright September afternoon was gone. Ron seemed to have nodded off but Hermione elbowed him and he woke with a start. "What's happening?"

A number of students around them were getting up and looking around too. Harry was getting a bad feeling.

"Let's go back to the castle, guys." Harry pleaded.

"Why, what's wrong, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"It just feels weird! I don't think we should stay here. It feels like, like something's coming."

"What? What's coming? Mate, you look pale!" Ron shook Harry, concern in his eyes.

A girl suddenly shrieked. She pointed at the sky. They all looked up. The sky seemed to be cracking. Breaks appeared from a centre point and spread along an axis.

"What is that?" said someone nearby.

But that wasn't the end of it. As the fracture in the sky kept spreading something seemed to be forcing it to do so. Another round of screaming followed from the students as a large pair of skeleton hands appeared from the 'other side of the sky' and began pushing the fault wider and wider. And then, a head poked out. It had a skull head, and was simply huge. Students began to flee back to the castle. Harry came back to his senses and began shouting at everyone to follow suit.

"Get out of here! RUN!"

The trio remained, as did Seamus and Dean who were nearby as well as a couple of Ravenclaw seventh years.

"What the hell is that?" Ron said under his breath.

"A – A H – Hollow." Hermione stammered.

"How the heck d'you know that?" Ron gasped, eyes still transfixed at the sky.

"We just had a lesson on them! You really need to start listening in class!"

"Whatever, don't give us that lecture now! What do we do? Or more importantly what's it gonna do?"

"If I understood Captain Ichimaru correctly… it's going to attack us and then turn us into one of them."

"Then we've got to stop it, wands out guys!" Harry ordered, "You guys too!" Harry called to the other seventh years. They obeyed. What could work against this thing he thought? By this time the Hollow was getting ready to plunge down at them, putting its weight on 'this side' of the sky and preparing for a thrust downwards.

"We should try and hit it with as many spells as possible, and someone from the school will hopefully come down to help – probably the Shinigami!"

The Hollow dived at them.

They all ran backwards as it crashed to earth. It didn't seem to be hurt though and quickly got back up, leaving a crater in the grass. As it looked around it spoke.

"Lots of choice for a feast here too! Not as good as those Shinigami I just left but you'll do!" The creature sounded ravenously hungry; its words were icy and wicked.

Seamus decided he was having the first shot and sent an Impedimenta spell at the beast. It staggered and fell on one knee. Some of the others nodded in approval. Deciding not to give the thing another chance to recover Harry sent a Reducto charm at it's left arm, shattering it and earning him shouts of praise from his fellow seventh years.

"Nice Harry!" Ron patted him on the back "leave the other arm to me!"

Ron sent Reducto at the right arm breaking it too. The young wizards and witches cheered in delight. The Hollow was getting angry, and its rage exploded after it lost its second arm.

"DAMN YOU, YOU CHILDREN!" it screamed. "I didn't think you weaklings would make me fight for real. It's time to get serious." It said.

The Hogwarts students certainly weren't expecting what happened next. The Hollow gasped, then grunted and after a second four new arms sprouted from its body. They grew longer than the first and shot out to grab three students. Hermione, Seamus and a Ravenclaw were caught in the thing's grasp. Hermione yelled, as did the Ravenclaw girl; they were both being waved around in the air, while Seamus was held still in front of the Hollow's head as a human shield. The Hollow then used its spare arm to hit the students. The arm was retractable and could be shot straight at people. It grazed Dean, but missed Harry who quickly used a Shield charm to deflect the attack.

"Let go of them you bastard!" Ron bellowed at the creature. This only made the Hollow laugh and it swung the screaming girls around faster.

"Like you pathetic kids could ever defeat me!" it laughed harder, "actually, I'm not even sure why you can see me but it doesn't matter since I'm gonna devour you anyway!"

Harry wasn't about to let that happen, neither was Ron. They both, as if their minds were in sync, sent severing charms at the arms as the Hollow bellowed in delight. The arms were lost before the thing had even stopped laughing! Hermione, Seamus and the Ravenclaw girl fell hard on the floor; Dean and the other Ravenclaws rushed forward to help them get away as the creature shrieked in distress. Harry didn't want to give it time to recover again and sent Sectumsempra at its head; unfortunately he missed as the thing fell sideways. The spell shot off across the lake and vanished. Before he could send another spell at it one arm jutted towards him and he lost balance. Ron couldn't catch him with his attention turned to Hermione and Harry's glasses fell off. As he scrambled for them he squinted his eyes at the monster, trying to be vigilant. He could just make out a giant, white, hazy arm coming down to slash him. In the confusion he lay forgotten, and frozen.

A black blur swooped in front of Harry from somewhere above. It stood still for a second and then was gone. Then Harry heard a new voice.

"Thought you could get away, eh?" the voice said, slightly chuckling, "not on my watch! I'm not killing you for attacking me back in the soul society, but for trying to kills these guys!"

Harry heard a slashing noise and then a yell of agony. There was of a flash of blinding light and a slur of words Harry couldn't make out the meaning of.

"That'll teach 'im." muttered the voice.

Harry had now forgotten what he was doing but now someone was coming closer and then his glasses were near his face, "Here you go." Said the stranger's voice. Harry took and put his glasses back on, and then scrambled up. The bright day was back and the sun shone warmly down on them. There stood in front of him was a Shinigami, a new one. He thanked the stranger for saving them and quickly looked around to see if everyone was okay. They all seemed fine so Harry turned back to check out this new person. He was fairly tall, young (around 16 or 17 Harry thought) and in black Shinigami robes, of course. He was smiling, though his eyebrows were creased, and he had startling orange hair. More ginger than Ron but with no freckles.

"Thanks again!" Harry said. He stared at the spot where the monster had been. "That was a Hollow, right?" The stranger nodded. "I thought they were only meant to be in the soul society, why was it here."

"No, Hollows are in the Living World mostly. I'm a Substitute Shinigami and my job's to send them back to the Soul Society after cleansing them. This damn one… I don't even know why it was in the Soul Society, but as I was about to kill it, it got away and ran over here. If it hadn't taken so long to open the doors to the living world, I'd have been here sooner. You guys are alright, yeah?"

"Yeah, fine thanks to you!"

"But it already had some damage to it, pretty easy to finish. You the one who wounded it?" he asked Harry.

"Well yeah, a bit. The others got some shots as well."

"Nice! You're not even hurt. If you hadn't dropped your glasses, you probably would have killed it before I got here!"

"Oh, well –" But Harry was cut off.

"ICCHHIGOO!" a girl's voice was coming from the distance.

"Oh, Inoue! You guys got here at last!" Ichigo answered.

"If we hadn't landed over there I'd have killed him! That one was mine, Kurosaki!" said a boy in square spectacles that had just run over to them with the girl called Inoue.

"Shut up, Ishida. I got here first, I finished it, end of!"

"Umm, sorry Uryuu." apologized the girl, "If I hadn't pushed you when I tripped, you would have got here with Ichigo!"

"No, no that was my own fault." The boy looked away pushing his glasses further up his nose.

Ichigo turned back to Harry and the others, who were now gathering round to meet their mysterious saviors. Only the orange-haired boy had the robes of a Shinigami on, they saw. The girl was wearing a pair of leggings and a simple top, and the boy called Uryuu Ishida was in blue-lined white robes and was wearing white gloves to match.

"Do you know if any of the other Shinigami are around?" Ichigo asked them.

"I think there was a meeting or something for the lieutenants and the captains…in the school." Harry pointed up to the castle.

"Right, better go find someone then! Bye you guys!" Ichigo turned to run off but Ishida stopped him.

"Wait Kurosaki. I sense that some are on their way. Your spirit sensing powers are still below par, I see." He pushed his glasses up his face again, smiling slightly.

"Don't get so cocky, Ishida, just cos you can sense some reiatsu. Who is it then?"

"Ichigo, it's Renji-san and Toshiro-kun. Maybe you do need to train a bit more." Inoue Orihime said laughing nervously. Sure enough after a minute or so, Renji's startling red ponytail and Captain Hitsugaya's bright white hair were visible in the distance.

"Yo! Ichigo! You finally got here!" Renji said.

"Don't make it sound like I'm late or something… I was supposed be guarding the Soul Society, remember?" Ichigo looked at Renji like he was a fool.

"You –" Renji began, but Captain Hitsugaya hushed him up.

"Stand aside, Abarai!" He stepped forward to speak to Ichigo. Renji did as he was told but remained scowling at his odd-haired comrade. "Now tell me what happened."

Ichigo explained that he was guarding the South Wall of the Soul Society with Ishida and Inoue, as he was told, when thousands of Hollows started appearing from nowhere, and seemingly congregating towards him. He fought off and killed them all except the one that appeared at Hogwarts. They had to go find Yoroichi at the North Wall to ask her to open the gate to the Living World, although by the time that they got here, the Hollow was almost dead anyway. He motioned to Harry as he said this. Hitsugaya nodded at Harry, and he muttered something under his breath like _not bad_.

"Well, Kurosaki, you'd better come into the castle and explain it to Captain Kuchiki; he's in charge at the moment." Ichigo and the others nodded.

"Can you come too?" Hitsugaya asked Harry.

"Me?" Harry said, perplexed!

"Yes, you seem to have had a great hand in this. We need your side of the report. In fact all of you." He said to the other students, who thought they had been forgotten at this point. When they slowly nodded the captain began walking away. They began to follow but soon heard a great rumble in the distance. The person making the noise got closer and soon they could hear his words.

"ICHIGO! YOU FINALLY GOT HERE!" Kenpachi roared. "LET'S GO AT IT NOW BEFORE THE SUNSETS!"

Ichigo stopped and gaped at the insane captain galloping madly towards him. "I'll see Byakuya later." He said to Hitsugaya, and then he fled towards the forbidden forest, clearly just looking for a place to hide.

Kenpachi reached them and bellowed at them as to _where the hell_ Ichigo had gone. Renji pointed at the forest, and again Kenpachi was gone, hollering as he went.

The Hogwarts students stared after them, confused. Hitsugaya sighed and they turned to listen to him.

"They're all idiots!" he said.


End file.
